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Pork low on menu as fears stay high
Wu now buys about 5 kilograms of pork at the nearest farm produce market as the number of pork consumers in his restaurant has nosedived. "Most diners eat fish and rabbits, few people order dishes made of pork. Some diners have asked me to use fish as the raw material to cook the dish 'Twice-cooked meat,'" said Ding Yuanyou, a 29-year-old chef in the restaurant. "As an increasing number of diners prefer fish and rabbits, their prices have risen by 10 per cent in the local farm produce market, while the price of pork has not dropped, for many pork sellers have stopped their business," he said. Wu said he has to go to the market early to buy pork. It would be sold out if he arrives there after 11 o'clock in the morning. "The reason is that only a few people sell pork now," he said. Conversely, an increasing number of people in Ziyang, Sichuan, where the first case of the streptococcus suis was discovered on June 24, are again eating pork, said Zhang Jing, a government worker. People believe that it is now safe to eat pork because the government has reinforced quarantine, he said. New cases One new human case of streptococcus suis and one death caused by the disease were reported yesterday in Sichuan, according to the Ministry of Health. By noon yesterday a total of 206 human cases, including 165 confirmed patients and 41 suspected cases, have been reported in 10 cities of the province. So far 38 people have died there. No other human or pig cases of the disease were reported in other areas of the country yesterday, the ministry said.
(China Daily 08/04/2005 page3)
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